Draft 29 – Updated 29 AUGUST 2026 (C005/D029)
The overseer, sensing the sudden tension of the townspeople facing him, turned slowly around to behold a small eladrin with a large moustache sitting on a mountain pony next to his lead wagon.
“Oh, honey,” he heard the elf coo into the first wagon holding slaves. “Are you feeling poorly?”
A collared child nodded and her eyes welled with tears.
The eladrin turned slightly in his saddle to face the hushed assembly on the steps. The young deputy near him stepped forward to intervene, but the overseer waved his bodyguard into stillness.
“Excuse me, sir,” said the ginger eladrin. “I’m afraid this child’s poorly.”
The overseer paused. There were so many ways he might respond, but none of them seemed exactly right.
“You’re an eladrin,” he observed.
“I am.”
“And you’re a healer?”
The elf smiled, extending a dainty hand. “Folks call me Autumn—”
“I didn’t ask your name,” the overseer interrupted. “I asked if you’re a healer.”
“I am a healer, sir,” Autumn replied, withdrawing his hand and turning off his smile.
The overseer paused, studying the ginger elf, wondering if this was a ploy. He searched Autumn’s eyes for any hint of a lie, but found none.
“This kind of cough spreads like wildfire,” Autumn volunteered softly. “If this child ain’t treated today, I promise you the rest’ll have it tomorrow.”
The overseer knew the savage was right. He cringed at the thought of delivering slaves to the Shadows only to have them die a few days later.
“How much?” he asked.
“That depends,” Autumn replied. “I can cure her proper. That’ll cost three silver and take half a day. Or … for one silver … I can give her some medicine. If it ain’t set in yet, it’ll stop it for a day or two. But if it’s already took hold … it won’t do much.”
The overseer heard Autumn’s price and relaxed. Healers in the haff-land performed an essential service, but none of them did it for free. Autumn, his instincts told him, was exactly what he seemed to be.
“I’ll give you ten for the bunch,” he countered. “You got enough for all of ‘em?”
The healer frowned as he counted the children in the wagons and then nodded when he was done. “I believe I do, sir,” Autumn replied cheerfully, climbing down from his horse and reaching into his saddlebags.
The young bodyguard’s long frontier knife flashed from his sheath the moment the healer’s hand disappeared into the saddlebag. Oblivious, the healer withdrew a canteen, a small bowl, and a burlap bundle. He set them both on the ground and then sat cross legged in the dust of the square.
His bodyguard hesitated, long blade drawn, wavering uncertainly while the overseer suppressed a smile. He hated this part of his job—traveling from town to town, playing a role, collecting tribute, placing children in bondage. It was a dreary way to repay his loans and put off his turn on the wheel.
But this … was an amusing distraction. Until today, he had never met an autumn eladrin. And this one, his first, was at once fearless, oblivious, charming, and entertaining.
The tiny ginger counted out fifteen holly leaves and placed them into his bowl. He recited a short incantation to create a tiny flame, which he carefully placed amongst the leaves. In a few moments, they smoked, turning instantly into ash.
Reaching into a pocket inside his shirt, he withdrew a small pouch from which he added a handful of dried blueberries. From another pocket, he produced a small wooden pestle which he used to crush them. As he did this, he recited another incantation, this one in a comical singsong language that nobody understood but made the children giggle.
“Keep an eye on the healer,” the overseer instructed his young bodyguard. Then he turned his back on the medicine show and finished his business with the clergyman, the butcher’s wife, and the rest of Three Mills’ town council.
POV issue again for me. Another POV is introduced, but I hardly feel as though I’ve landed in any one of them – without connecting to a voice, the story can escape. Otherwise, the end of the segment felt a bit abrupt. The “amusing distraction” came a bit out of nowhere for me.
What I liked again most was how the dialogue was handled, and descriptions between the dialogue tags; this is very strong.